a collection of ideas froam a variety of sources

7/21/2019 A Collection of Ideas Froam a Variety of Sources

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A COLLECTION OF IDEAS FROM A

VARIETY OF SOURCES

A m e r i c a n S o c i e t y o f I n t e r i o r D e s i g n e r s ASIDAmerican Societyof Interior DesignersPh:(202) 546-3480Fax: (202) 546-3240

Bad Hair Day? Remember, volunteers can have bad days too. If you see that happening:

• Pitch in and share the person’s workload.• Reschedule a project/meeting.• Come up with a pleasant surprise.• Be an even better listener.• Try and bring a smile to his/her face.

Appreciate Your Volunteers

• Regularly list volunteers’ accomplishments/services in your newsletter.

• Post a bulletin board to showcase volunteers and their work.• Invite a volunteer to write a newsletter article on his/her accomplishments.• Create a video featuring your volunteers in action to help recruit at membership meetings.• Conduct a survey to identify new volunteer opportunities.

Say “Goodbye” to Unproductive Volunteers Puzzled about how to get rid of a unproductive volunteer?

• Make use of a job description. Have a job description for every volunteer position that clearly delineatesresponsibilities and expectations. You can use this as an evaluation form as well.

• Establish nite terms of service. If volunteers haven’t held up their end of the bargain during that period,don’t give them another position.

Tips to Increase Newsletter ReadershipNeed help getting people to read your newsletter? Try any of these suggestions:

• Challenge your readers to nd the ctitious fact. Announce that a false statement has been placed in yourpublication. Those who nd it and point it out will have their names entered in a contest drawing.

• Include a regular trivia feature. List a series of trivia questions about the little-known facts regarding yourchapter as a way to

involve readers in your publication.• Conduct a scavenger hunt. Hide a member’s name or membership number within the text of your

publication. The person nding his/her name in that issue wins a prize, which might be free admission to achapter event.

Showcase Examples of LeadershipDo you have a volunteer who recently did something great? If so, nd ways to tell other volunteers about it.Use photographs with your newsletter. Feature them in a newsletter story and include a photograph. You’ll berewarding the do-gooder while motivating others.

Going Against the Tide: If you express an idea and sense lack of support, or if you perceive you may be going against already establishedinternal plans/policies, give serious thought before you pursue any further.

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Stress? A certain amount of stress can actually be healthy, but you can minimize daily tension by trying thesestrategies:

• Exercise rigorously, at least 30 minutes a day, and get sufcient sleep.• Focus on someone else’s problems – doing so diminishes your own.• Plan something fun – a weekend getaway or a party.• Take your mind off your worries by reading a book, or taking up a hobby.• Savor and celebrate your accomplishments.

• Treat yourself.• Make a conscious daily effort to think and act positively.• Prioritize personal and job-related projects, then focus your energy on what’s most important.• Recognize the humor in everyday experiences. Smile and laugh.• Find ways to make difcult or boring jobs fun.• Do good deeds – that’s an automatic cure.

Share the Best Qualities of Other Organizations Help your chapter identify other institutions or agencies’ positive characteristics and share them with yourboard.

Hold Fast to Meeting Dates If you have made a point to set board or other ofcial meeting dates months in advance, be reluctantto change them. Changing meeting dates to accommo date one or two individuals is annoying to those who have faithfully kept the dates open. When changing dates becomes the rule rather than the exception,participants will think meetings are not really that important.

Filling Hard-to-Fill Jobs There are certain tasks that just aren’t very appealing. Yet, someone needs to do them. How can you makethese jobs more appealing? Here are a few techniques:

• Be willing to do the job yourself, as an example to others.• Insure brevity of time commitment• Explain that these are one-time-only jobs.• Let volunteers work in pairs.

• Provide special incentives that make it more difcult to refuse helping out.• Point out ways the volunteer’s assistance positively impacts those served by your organization.

Decrease Volunteer AbsenteeismIf you have difculty with volunteers not showing up, implement some of these techniques:

• Have an excused-absences-only policy. Two unexcused absences and they are out.• Recognize and reward those with perfect attendance over specic periods of time• Hold prize drawings where volunteers must be present to win.• Make note of excused and unexcused absences in meeting minutes.• Let those in attendance have rst choice at assignments.• Call to remind volunteers on the day of a meeting or event to prevent the I-completely-forgot syndrome.

Need Help Remembering Names? To help you:

• After listening to the name, repeat it. “Jane Jones … it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is ImaFieldstone.”

• Associate the name with someone or something that will help you remember.• Repeat the name in your mind shortly after the introduction. If you make a point to repeat it to yourself

again within several minutes, you will help your long-term memory retain it.



Strategies that Build Loyalty Organizational loyalty results in commitment, and commitment results in a willingness to contribute bothtime and resources

• Build meaningful traditions such as a recognition event for volunteers.• Instill camaraderie.• Make roles and events ofcial. Make it important to be appointed to a volunteer or board position.

Introduce and publicize new members or appointed individuals.

• Position your organization against the competition.• Tug at the heartstrings. Invoke memories of past times with your agency or institution. Focus attention

on long term members or long-respected members.

Volunteer Application You can develop a volunteer application form to send out to members.

Meeting Environment When planning a meeting or other event, select a space just large enough for the anticipated crowd. Too manyempty chairs or too few people to ll the available space conveys “poor attendance.” On the other hand, aslightly crowded room heightens excitement. For meetings, have slightly fewer chairs set up than expectedattendees. Have extra chairs close by to set up when additional members arrive.

Scared speechless? You are not alone! According to a study by Roper Sarch Worldwide, public speaking scares the majority of people. More thanhalf of Americans surveyed say they are either afraid or bothered by the idea of public speaking. This ismore than the fear of getting fat, going out alone at night, spiders and insects, ying an airplane or eventheir own death.

“A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.” English proverb

“Success is 99% failure.” Soichiro Honda Review of an article in Chapter Relations Communications titled “Multiple Plans for Multiple Generations,”by Dale Gaddy, CAE.

Gaddy points out we need to attract new members, keep the old ones and work to meet the needs of both.The diversity between the generations in lifestyle, values, interests, etc., has never been as great as today. Heidenties the following groups:

Generation X born between 1965 and 1985

Baby Boomers born between 1945 and 1965

Silent Generation born between 1925 and 1945 These groups call for tailored efforts to approach, entice, involve and retain association members.

Group Characteristics:

SILENTS Inuenced by the 1930’s Depression and WWII. Treasure their employment.

Loyal to employers. Join associations and other organized groups for most of their lives. Work long hours. Give additional hours to civic, religious and social causes. Are the primary



ASID

American Societyof Interior DesignersPh: (202) 546-3480Fax: (202) 546-3240

movers and doers of associations during later part of 20th century.

BOOMERS Inuenced by rock ‘n’ roll and rebellion. Generally materialistic. Loyal to employers, if sufciently rewarded. Not givers, unless they can see a direct benet to themselves.

X’ers Products of dual-career and single-parent households. Generally pragmatic, show little if any loyalty to organizations and tend to

have cynical view. Believe employers value prot over individual worth. See benets in working long hours or devoting additional hours to organizationsto the detriment of family and signicant others.

Gaddy states, “messages and operating procedures must be packaged differently for each generation … Associations should make special effort to tap the experience base of these senior members before they handover the reigns, because their levels of long- term dedicated service to associations may not soon be replicated‘We need the benet of your wisdom’ would be the appropriate slogan of membership and leadershipcampaigns targeted to Silents in the coming years.”

The Boomers should be marketed to with the approach of helping these individuals become more successfulin their businesses. A theme appropriate to this group would be, “Join our organization and learn how toenhance your bottom line.” Boomers will take on leadership responsibilities only if service on a committee,

board or task force will clearly result in tangible gains in their respective places of work. “What’s in it for me?”has never been more pertinent – except for X-ers, that is.

X-ers nd very little appeal in leadership roles or membership. The campaign must stress the joys of belongingto an association. “You can essentially forget about their attending association meetings,” according to Gaddy“Those who do take on leadership roles will want everything handled by the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms andso forth. X-ers are more cynical and view Silents as unnecessarily loyal to employers. They perceive boomers amaterialistic predators who have fallen prey to downsizing. They question or ignore the claims of marketers,including association marketing specialists. Only straightforward, substantiated evidence of benets is likelyto sway this younger, more selective generation.”

Overall, “A vibrant chapter depends on a membership base that is sufcient in size, a pool of leaders who will orchestrate chapter activities, and an array of tangible benets of direct relevance to different generations

of members.”

a collection of ideas froam a variety of sources

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